"This is..."
The village chief looked at the photo of Claude, puzzled, "Where did you get this image?"
"We encountered this person inside the forest."
Li Ang asked, "Have you seen him?"
"No, ever since the premature aging problem worsened, the people in our village rarely leave the village."
The village chief replied, "But I have indeed heard of him. According to what my ancestors passed down by word of mouth, there are many strange things lurking in the forest outside, including an odd-looking, ugly, insane three-ard monster.
Is he still alive?
Judging by the tiline, he has been around for at least two to three hundred years."
That long?
Li Ang's heart stirred, and he exchanged a glance with Hoenhem, silently choosing not to ntion that the new "dicine" promoted in the village earlier ca as a gift from the three-ard monster Claude.
Soon, everyone arrived at the base of the mountain,
where the village chief walked forward, back facing the players, and pressed a certain stone at the mountain's foot,
boom—
The mountain's rocks suddenly trembled, accompanied by a torrent of falling pebbles, a giant weather-beaten and cracked rock slid smoothly to the left, revealing an archway entrance.
"Whew..."
The village chief wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and led the others through the archway, arriving in front of a plain stone door.
The entire stone door was gray-white, unpolished, with a rough surface, and no door handle or keyhole.
Directly above it was a recessed cavity, rectangular in shape.
The village chief signaled the players to take out the stone they had obtained in the underground palace, flip it over with the flowing cloud pattern facing outward,
and slowly insert the brick into the cavity.
Since the stone door was positioned high up, the task of placing the brick was done by Ding Zhensi.
As the brick perfectly fit into the cavity, the flowing cloud pattern in the middle of the brick gradually lit up with a faint white glow,
causing the stone door to tremble slightly and shower dust.
Ding Zhensi manipulated the Kui Ox cha, taking half a step back, ready to brandish the Tortoise Oracle shield in front at any mont to thwart potential attacks.
After several seconds, nothing happened,
Li Ang coughed softly and asked the village chief, "Chief, the key."
The village chief stared blankly at the stone door, then snapped out of it, "Oh, my apologies, actually, I've never seen the full appearance of the Holy Mountain Gate..."
He awkwardly smiled, reached into his collar, and pulled out an oddly-shaped, slim bronze key,
jogged to the stone door, and slowly aligned the key, which had nurous grooves on top, with the stone door.
The bronze key t no resistance, rging into the seemingly solid stone door,
accompanied by a series of complex chanical sounds resembling a gear system, the stone door automatically split into two parts, sliding into the mountain inwards, revealing a three-ter high, oval-shaped light circle.
The light circle was entirely white, with the outer ring brighter than the inside, constantly emitting visible white particles outwards.
The particles in the outer ring drifted aimlessly, spontaneously appearing and disappearing like sparks,
while the inner ring's particles rotated counterclockwise, converging at the center.
Door!
At the instant they saw the light circle, all players simultaneously thought of this term.
The light circle behind the stone door was almost identical to the stargates they've seen in the real world, except for the color — stargates appeared in various vibrant colors, forged by starlight,
whereas this light circle was purely white, and the continuously erging white particles imparted a sense of instability compared to the stargates.
The village chief withdrew the bronze key, took a few steps back,
and took a deep breath, his eyes reflecting the gently rotating light gate, speaking in a tone mixed with reverence, lancholy, and regret, "This is the gate of the Holy Mountain."
He hesitated for a mont, looked towards the adventurers,
and interpreted the players' shock as amazent at the Holy Mountain gate, smiling as he said, "According to the regulations set by my ancestors, I'll be taking my leave now.
This gate only opens for three minutes at a ti,
so dear adventurers, please enter promptly."
With that, the village chief put away the bronze key and quietly exited the mountain under the escort of village guards, disappearing around the corner.
Ding Zhensi stared at the oval of light, swallowed, "This is..."
"Yes."
Hoenhem nodded solemnly without offering an explanation, stepping forward to examine the light gate closely.
"Behind this door is solid mountain body rock, with no additional space."
Hoenhem slowly said, "In other words, this oval light circle is likely so kind of teleportation array, stepping into it would transport soone to another location."
"Objective updated,"
David raised his head and said, "My task now is to enter the Holy Mountain and complete the trial."
"Sa here."
Amber nodded; the previous task of "killing the magical beast, completing the village chief's commission, and obtaining the key to the Holy Mountain" was now replaced with new text.
"Looks like we must step in,"
Li Ang pondered aloud, silently releasing group sympathy from his psychic abilities, pulling Ding Zhensi and Liu Wu Dai into the link.
"Huh?"
Before Ding Zhensi could react fully, Li Ang quickly explained what he'd learned from Liu Wu Dai about the pattern carved on the stone brick atop the Holy Mountain Gate, which had appeared in the Heterodox Academy's database.
Li Ang: "Do you know anything about it?"
Ding Zhensi: "Huh? I don't know. My daily work involves being studied, as my Kui Ox cha is quite special. To minimize information leaks, I don't have access to intel I don't need to know."
Inside Ding Zhensi's Kui Ox cha lies the alien beast soul fragnt excavated by the Special Affairs Bureau from the Demon Prison,
and pilots of the Shanhai Series ch Armor aren't rely operators of the armor but also act as the anchoring entity that suppresses and engages with the alien beast soul fragnt,
and upon entering a berserk state, the restrictions on the alien beast soul fragnt are lifted, unleashing the primordial beast's potential, significantly boosting the cha's performance beyond its intended limits.
However, this brings about potential drawbacks, as pilots may succumb to the alien beast soul during the prolonged ntal confrontation, even falling under its control.
To mitigate risks, Ding Zhensi and other Shanhai ch pilots are genuinely just pilots, denied access to classified information, with intelligence privileges below that of a frontline operative like Xing Hechou.
Li Ang: "Alright. Judging by the appearance, this oval light circle bears over 70% similarity to the stargate. Considering the pattern has appeared in the Heterodox Academy database,
it's not impossible that this script world is connected to the Heterodox Academy.
Hmm... Does the teleportation array used by the Heterodox Academy look similar to this?"
Ding Zhensi hesitated, "The teleportation array currently used by the Special Affairs Bureau looks completely different.
Our array is crafted from Heterodox Academy talismans and formations, powered by a nuclear reactor-level power supply,
it resembles a large cabinet, or container.
If this too is a teleportation gate,
it should be more advanced than the teleportation array currently used by the Special Affairs Bureau."
Li Ang: "Is that so..."
This halo, is it a replica obtained from the Star Gate research by the Heterodox Academy?
Or is it a Star Gate they captured before?
A myriad of possibilities intertwined in his mind, Li Ang smacked his lips, rubbed his palms, and sighed, "When soldiers co, use a general to block them; when water cos, use soil to cover it.
But since the mission objective requires us to enter the teleportation gate, it proves that there is no imdiate lethal threat behind it, and there's no setting like a 'door kill.'
"Hmm."
Hoenhem nodded, withdrew his gaze from the halo, and said lightly, "Rember to keep your walkie-talkies on later.
To prevent the teleportation gate from randomly sending us to different locations."
Having said that, Hoenhem took a walkie-talkie out from his backpack, pressed its button,
tied the walkie-talkie with a rope,
and then tossed it into the halo like throwing a chain ball.
According to the description of the [Lightning Eleven Walkie-Talkie], the first device could observe the distance to other walkie-talkies, but this ti, the lights on the first device flashed without change.
"Out of communication range..."
Hoenhem's expression changed slightly as he reached out to pull the rope back.
Snap.
As soon as the rope was pulled up, it broke on its own. Hoenhem held the broken rope, his expression grew more solemn.
He wasn't troubled because he couldn't retrieve that walkie-talkie.
The rupture of the rope was impeccably smooth, with no roughness, as if it had been delicately severed by a high-frequency cutting blade.
You can only go in, not out...
Hoenhem dropped the rope,
drank a few bottles of magic potions, and the Book of Sand in his hand automatically flipped pages, releasing several group buff spells that enveloped the players.
Increasing group physical resistance, group magic resistance, group underwater breathing, group night vision, group feline agility...
A circle of various colored light spots imdiately appeared under everyone's feet.
While drinking the magic potions, Hoenhem briefly introduced the effects and duration of the group buffs,
Once all preparations were completed, they each stepped into the halo one after another.
————
It's now five-thirty in the afternoon.
Neighborhood, room, living room.
Miss Chai, wearing Li Ang's skin, sat upright, staring at the clock on the wall that was running steadily.
It had been five and a half hours, three hundred and thirty minutes, and nineteen thousand eight hundred seconds since Li Ang teleported away.
The place where he disappeared showed no change,
No sudden appearance of bloodstains,
No alteration in sll, sound, or light.
It was as if Li Ang vanished from this room, erased forever.
Stay calm...
Miss Chai took a deep breath, forcing herself to remain composed.
Her rationality repeatedly reminded her that the script tasks received by high-level players would not be simple,
Whether it's through fully imrsive mode or direct teleportation,
It could last a few hours, or it could take several days.
Li Ang had only been gone for less than six hours, perhaps he was still within the script task, intermittently engaging in bizarre behaviors as usual,
Jokingly solving puzzles effortlessly, while casually hamring the head of the end boss into the wall amidst nonsensical chatter.
Miss Chai giggled dumbly, as if Li Ang's figure in a dragon head white lab coat appeared before her eyes,
Despite being older than Li Ang both in life and afterlife, she always felt a strange sense of comfort when beside him,
Always felt that she could ignore everything, rely needing to eat, drink, and be idle to get by peacefully,
Sotis even giving up thinking, becoming a simple rice worm...
Wait a minute, why do I feel like I'm just a dog waiting for its master to co ho?!
Miss Chai snapped out of it, shook her head, and lightly slapped herself to regain clarity.
The ticulously crafted skin returned a burning sensation to her face,
Miss Chai glanced sideways at the Double Blade Turkey shrinking under the TV cabinet,
Luckily, the Brain Worm had received Miss Chai's command earlier and was imrsed in the spiritual energy network of Earth's Brain Worms, rapidly exchanging information with other Brain Worms in different geographical locations through spiritual energy,
Activating the Bug Nest Mothership, allocating troops, drafting invasion raid plans...
Unaware of the silly smile and the sowhat undignified self-slapping of the Lady Saint just now.
Lucky, almost lost face in front of subordinates.
Miss Chai let out an almost imperceptible sigh, feeling her spirits begin to sink again.
The Brain Worms' first command ingrained in their genes is to obey the Creator, flesh, and Lord of the Swamp, Li Ang,
The second command is to follow the Lady Saint's orders,
The third command pertains to the developnt, proliferation, and growth of the Bug Nest.
Li Ang hadn't set any grand and distant goals for the Bug Nest. To maintain control, all overarching actions of the Bug Nest had to be decided by him,
Whether or not to approve various plans devised by the Brain Worms.
At the sa ti, Li Ang also established a backup plan,
Ensuring that if he died or disappeared for a long ti, the Bug Nest could continue to develop, continue to protect Miss Chai, Wang Congshan, and the human civilization on Earth.
Just not sure what the specific execution steps of the backup plan are...
Miss Chai frowned, feeling she had vaguely heard Li Ang's instructions, but that day she was lying on the sofa playing with her phone, laughing stupidly at a new skin in a mobile ga, not listening attentively...
Tch, these virtual characters misled !
If I forgot the backup plan Li Ang laid out, causing the Bug Nest to lose control, then you, this mobile ga, have done a great disservice to humanity and owe the world an apology on your knees!
Chaichai gritted her teeth in remorse, let out a heavy sigh, and continued to sit upright, watching the clock on the wall continue to tick away.
Bzzzz——
The phone on the coffee table suddenly vibrated,
Chaichai jumped, lunged forward, picked up the phone,
Unfortunately, the caller ID was not Li Ang's backup number,
But Wang Congshan.
Chaichai raised an eyebrow, answered the call, "Hello?"
"Hello, Li Ang?"
Wang Congshan's natural voice ca from the other end of the phone, "What are you doing now?"
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